On the occasion of Transworld Skateboarding’s 30th Anniversary, The New Yorker writer James Guida posts a nice overview of skaters old and young past and present. And, shockingly, gets most of it right (Stacy as in Peralta, however, is spelled with no e, so much for New Yorker fact checkers, huh?).
It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that Transworld’s videos are highly watchable. Part of the novelty for fans comes from seeing people whose identities you’ve previously cobbled together from anecdotes, interviews, and a few shreds of off-board footage. But once you’ve gotten over that, the profiles simply form an engaging gallery of portraits.
Kai Neville is about to release his new What Youth full length feature film titled Dear Suburbia: And Excursion Into The Absurfa. The title kind of reminds us of those girls on Instagram who describe themselves as quirky or weird. Nonetheless, Dear Suburbia is destined to be the it, now, happening, thing because it features all the cool kids: Dane Reynolds, John John Florence, Yadin Nicol, Kolohe Andino, Conner Coffin, Craig Anderson, Mitch Coleborn, Dion Agius, Evan Geiselman, Chippa Wilson, Dillon Perillo, Jack Freestone, and Taj Burrow.
Anyone missing? Yeah, a couple. Oh well. If you’re in SoCal you can see the grand premiere live at The Strand in Huntington Beach, California on August 2, 2012. For all the details, click the link.
TPG, the monster sized private equity firm (not to be confused with TCP the company that bought nearly half of Nixon), has made another offer for Billabong according to a story in the Australian Financial Review. Only this time it’s much lower than it was in February according to the Business Spectator.
In February, TPG offered $3.30 a share for Billabong, valuing the company at $850 million. This week’s offer of $1.45 a share comes at a 32 per cent premium to Billabong’s last traded price of $1.10, but illustrates the company’s struggles since the February offer, which has seen it issue another profit downgrade and launch a heavily discounted capital raising.
We’re guessing Mr. Merchant (and the board) will be a little more receptive to the offer this time around (seeing how things have been going recently). [Link: Business Spectator and Australian Financial Review]
Sometimes ultra realism isn’t exactly what we’re all after with video games. And nothing in Party Wave is realistic, however, it is fun in a crazy, overly animated Japanese video game way. Party Wave was developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the massively popular Final Fantasy series, according to a post on Kotaku.
The object is to ride waves, avoid sea life, and to get a bunch of surfers to pull off tricks without wiping out. The wave riding took some getting used so to get maximum points and pull off tricks.
Alexandre Ressica, 22, of La Reunion died (Monday, July 23, 2012) after having his leg bit off by a shark, according to a story in The Australian.
Fellow surfers were able to haul Alexandre Rassica, a 22-year-old local, back to the beach at Trois-Bassins on the west of the island after the attack. But when paramedics arrived he was in a state of cardiac arrest, officials said.
This is retiredly the sixth attack on humans in the past year. Our thoughts are with Rassica’s family and friends.
Girls in bikinis, butts in closeup, bare backs and Jack Freestone, Ian Gentil, Peterson Crisanto, and Ruan Callinan surfing. It appears someone has done their market research. Either way it’s 24 minutes of surf bliss.
Tonight at San Francisco’s Fecal Face Gallery graphic artist, illustrator and tattooist Mike Giant officially opens his show Confessions Of An Old Dirty Skateboarder. The show features “a wide assemblage of recent drawings and also a rare opportunity to view Giant’s personal collection of skateboards he illustrated the graphics for, including boards from his early career.”
Here’s what Giant says:
“I’m a product of my generation. I grew up through the 80s and was drawn to the punk rock and hip-hop cultures simultaneously”, Giant said in a recent interview. “I threw myself in headfirst. A lot of those things were about personal expression, and also an anti-establishment attitude like, “We don’t need you, we have our own thing.” That’s the backbone of who I am to this day”.
The opening begins at 7 PM. The show runs from July 20 – August 12, 2012. Fecal Face Gallery is located at 2277 Mission St. in San Francisco, California. For the rest of the info click the link.
Swedish snowboard photographer Daniel Blom is celebrating his 10 years in the action image capturing game with a book titled Drifting Decade.
Drifting Decade, a hardcover 240 page book portraying some of the most influential riders of the 21th scenery, on and off the mountain, mixes documentary style images with crisp action and snapshots. This book presents the full spectrum of this subculture’s ramifications including big mountain lines in Alaska, stadium contests in Germany to urban riding in Finland.
The book ships out at the end of September. But you can pre-order a signed copy now by signing up on the website. Looks like it’s going to be a good book. Especially for those who prefer pictures over words.
It’s a superstar episode of the Weekend Buzz as Street League Arizona winner (and X Games gold medalist) Paul Rodriguez and Shane O’Neill convince Erica Yary and Rob Brink to take their show on the road to P-Rod’s training facility in Canoga Park, California. There’s more and it’s good.
